Playing Styles

[Bowser]

....tension between the "strategy" players (characterized especially by the pirates of old and some of the clans and empires) and the "pure" roleplayers (characterized by those who try to create "Middle America" in Cantr, even though it doesn't work).

I never knew of any tension between different styles of play, but then again what do I know?

I have, however, realized that my style of play is different than most. I check my account atleast twice a day and always know what is going on. I defend my players and my groups, but I do not however stay logged on long enough to have a giant conversation. I react to what happened and put in my 2 cents then log out, only to return a few hours later.

Other people that see me move, say, "Hello" But I don't reply to them, because I am already gone. I have not been "after the girl", but I have lost many a RP partner because I am not an "active" player. I am an active player, I just don't consider this game a real time chat board for free form role playing and refuse to wait around to see a name on my character page to light up.

Its very hard to create a society because of high turn over. People die too much, people are unreliable, no one trades because doing it yourself is almost always better. It would take one person more than half his life to make a car, thats a lot of man hours. I have one or two 60+ year old characters that were designed to be hoarders. Now all the weapopns they hoarded are decaying and it will take forever to fix them all. And even the tools I keep on my person have to be fixed all the time. I think owning a screwdriver, trowel, hammer, shield, and weapon are staples in Cantr Life. Then add on specialty tools such as files, knives, wrenches, specialty weapon making tools..... all these things can not be owned by one person unless they hire a whole crew of repairmen to work for them full time.

I am not venting or complaining or asking for any changes. This post started out as me just commenting on how I noticed different types of players out there and I just started rambling.

Okay, now feel free to discuss whatever amongst yourselves

[formerly known as hf]

I usually play the same - I'll log into a charrie, say a few things, do a few things, then log out, not to log in again until the next day - but, like it says at the front page, one meeting can take a week...

[west]

It would take one person more than half his life to make a car, thats a lot of man hours. I have one or two 60+ year old characters that were designed to be hoarders. Now all the weapopns they hoarded are decaying and it will take forever to fix them all. And even the tools I keep on my person have to be fixed all the time. I think owning a screwdriver, trowel, hammer, shield, and weapon are staples in Cantr Life. Then add on specialty tools such as files, knives, wrenches, specialty weapon making tools..... all these things can not be owned by one person unless they hire a whole crew of repairmen to work for them full time.

I am not venting or complaining or asking for any changes. This post started out as me just commenting on how I noticed different types of players out there and I just started rambling.

Well, I agree, and I am complaining. This is not a case of west-whines-because-the-game-mechanics-disfavor-him (and indeed, I doubt you could find a single case of that), this is a case of the-game-was-changed-to-accomodate-some-concerns-but- it's-obvious-that-the-mechanics-could-use-some-tweaking-and- it-hasn't-happened-and-in-the-meantime-progess-is-almost-at-a- standstill.

That's a lot of hypens.

**Edited only to make the threat more readable, adding spaces in three places--Genevieve**

[kinvoya]

As with the tiredness epidemic it seems we are destined to complain in vain about insanely high repair rates for many months without comment from anyone who could at least let us know they care. Until suddenly, one frosty Christmas morning, we'll wake up to find they have all been reset to levels which are so low that they loose any kind of meaning except to be one more thing we have to waste minutes monitoring everyday. In the meantime lots of people will have lost precious tools and precious years of their chars working lives while they desperately try to hold on to the small amount of material wealth they've worked so hard to accumulate.

Yes, I'm bitching again. I thought we had agreed to keep the lines of comunication open.

[wichita]

I've got some opinions on this topic that I have discussed from time to time with others on IM. I'm working on an article for the webzine where I'll try to present some sort of organized discussion...if that doesn't work, I'll post it here because I know you're all just dying to hear my opinion! "Oh, yes, Wichita! Enlighten us!" I hear them all say. Patience my little ones.
Ok...so I'm not funny.

That's a lot of hypens.

Yes it is a lot of hyphens. Your word is f-ing with my monitor's chi, man!

EDIT: Comma inserted for grammatical smart ass-ity.

[west]

Well, my browser word-wraps it, so I don't have a problem. And who you callin' a chi man?

[SekoETC]

I'm the kind of player who can't log out if there's any characters lit. Exept for writing a longer post and trying to save minutes while doing it. So by the time I'm done checking all characters, some of them have new events that need reading and it starts all over again.

Owning every tool in game is made impossible, you're hinting. If that forces people to specialize into different trades instead of doing everything on their own then that's a good thing. You just have to adjust. Trust people a little. Share. Keeping a rotting reserve of things you don't even need is just selfish. But I've noticed even if you're ready to share, most people just want to build their own bone clubs and do everything from scratch. Well people, the most valuable resource in Cantr is not iron, it's not steel. It's people. Workforce, social relationships. I'd rather take one good ingame relationship than 1000g of steel (and so would the certain one of my characters who is missing that amount of steel at the moment).

I'm a roleplayer. It's like improvised acting. I admit I sometimes pull a show, but I rather interact with other people than keep a monologue. Sometimes you just have to create action when others are not doing it. Before getting machinery, people had to farm with primitive means and most of the people were peasants. But did they go kill themselves or fall into stupor of the boredom? Nope. We're still alive, offspring of those peasants. We aren't just working machines, we are people with thoughts and feelings, we chat and we sing and we touch and we fight and sometimes make love. Some people might say that the casual chatter in towns is useless waste of time but that's what keeps us awake.

[black knight]

three cheers fo sekoETC...

[El_Skwidd]

I think I might staple that post to my forehead.

Everybody read that.

Chances are, though, if you're reading this, you already read it.

[Nick]

Seko, first you talk about how people should share.

And then you say about how people should be having sex because that's what people do in real life?

A little hypocritical, considering the ammount of sharing that goes on in real life.

[SekoETC]

Sex is a form of social connecting. Anyway, how does that connect to this topic? If I mention it as a one thing out of many that keeps people from getting bored and falling into the sleeping sickness, what makes it stand out so bad that you'd have to pay special attention to it? The reason to have sex is not "because there is such thing in real life" but because it is said that Cantrians are humans, thus they should have a need to touch and be touched.

And no, you don't need to start a charity agency if you got a lot of stuff, you can also use your wealth to control people. You give someone a tool and they're in debt to you until they've paid back. You may get screwed but if you hire lots of people then it's easy to send thugs with sabres to chase down anyone trying to steal from you. But leaving things rotting in a locked storage benefits no one, not even yourself. I know real life isn't a big happy commune where everyone shares everything and works together. Not saying Cantr should be either. But be reasonable. People do work together irl, even if there are leaders and slaves and all the ranks in the middle and someone always gets more money than the others.

[Nick]

People keep millions of dollars in banks.

Yet others WISH they could gather 800 grams of potatoes a day.

[Ovault]

I never knew of any tension between different styles of play, but then again what do I know?

I have, however, realized that my style of play is different than most. I check my account atleast twice a day and always know what is going on. I defend my players and my groups, but I do not however stay logged on long enough to have a giant conversation. I react to what happened and put in my 2 cents then log out, only to return a few hours later.

Other people that see me move, say, "Hello" But I don't reply to them, because I am already gone. I have not been "after the girl", but I have lost many a RP partner because I am not an "active" player. I am an active player, I just don't consider this game a real time chat board for free form role playing and refuse to wait around to see a name on my character page to light up.

Its very hard to create a society because of high turn over. People die too much, people are unreliable, no one trades because doing it yourself is almost always better. It would take one person more than half his life to make a car, thats a lot of man hours. I have one or two 60+ year old characters that were designed to be hoarders. Now all the weapopns they hoarded are decaying and it will take forever to fix them all. And even the tools I keep on my person have to be fixed all the time. I think owning a screwdriver, trowel, hammer, shield, and weapon are staples in Cantr Life. Then add on specialty tools such as files, knives, wrenches, specialty weapon making tools..... all these things can not be owned by one person unless they hire a whole crew of repairmen to work for them full time.

I am not venting or complaining or asking for any changes. This post started out as me just commenting on how I noticed different types of players out there and I just started rambling.

Okay, now feel free to discuss whatever amongst yourselves

I think your completely wrong about the whole society thing if theres 1 40 yr old man 1 30 yr old woman, 1 30 yr old man and 5 diffrent cooparitive newbies you ccould start a town EASILY ... and the whole thing about keeping up with towns people are always joining cantr every single day and spawning in ton of a diffrent towns and as long as people keep coming towns will remain vibrant . all the newbies would probally just farm for food or eventually die but its the old folks who the keep the system going

Sex is a form of social connecting. Anyway, how does that connect to this topic? If I mention it as a one thing out of many that keeps people from getting bored and falling into the sleeping sickness, what makes it stand out so bad that you'd have to pay special attention to it? The reason to have sex is not "because there is such thing in real life" but because it is said that Cantrians are humans, thus they should have a need to touch and be touched.

And no, you don't need to start a charity agency if you got a lot of stuff, you can also use your wealth to control people. You give someone a tool and they're in debt to you until they've paid back. You may get screwed but if you hire lots of people then it's easy to send thugs with sabres to chase down anyone trying to steal from you. But leaving things rotting in a locked storage benefits no one, not even yourself. I know real life isn't a big happy commune where everyone shares everything and works together. Not saying Cantr should be either. But be reasonable. People do work together irl, even if there are leaders and slaves and all the ranks in the middle and someone always gets more money than the others.

I really doubt there should be sex if there was it would probally be 18 or over to play cantr then and im 14 but I see alot of that everyday so its no big deal for me And I seriusly dont think cantr should be like that completely peaceful happy hippy place where every one gets along and shares and gives out free food and is all perfect, Cantr wouldnt be fun if there was no thieves or pirates, Cantr NEEDS chaos to keep it ritch and fun

[Surly]

Cantr wouldnt be fun if there was no thieves or pirates, Cantr NEEDS chaos to keep it ritch and fun

That would only be true if their were actual societies.Otherwise its just frustrating to have your characters mindlessly slaughtered...

[wichita]

An interesting commentary on the interesting phenomenon with people being pro violence and anti-sex in games.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/07/22/notes072205.DTL